Thought for the Day

It is a very difficult task to secure a good Guru. Sishyas (disciples) can become exemplary persons only when a real Guru accepts them. When pure-hearted, unselfish and non-egoistic students approach a Guru, the Guru exults in ecstatic delight. Parikshith, the Emperor, renounced everything and decided to realise God, and, right at that moment, Maharshi Suka appeared, to guide him straight to his goal. Similarly, when the good sishyas get good Gurus, they succeed not only in attaining Bliss but also in conferring peace, prosperity and joy upon the entire world.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

It is mentioned that "Success begets success." But how is success to be achieved and what is the success you should aim at? The Bhagavad Gita declares: Shraddhavan Labhathe Jnanam (The persevering seeker secures wisdom). This means that without perseverance and earnestness, no success can be achieved. Man is not able to make significant progress towards the Divine because of absence of strenuous striving in the spiritual sphere. Without spiritual practice, reading religious books and listening to spiritual discourses have no value. Study of scriptures and reciting God's names may be good acts in themselves. But, if there is no love, which is the basis of all sadhana (spiritual discipline), they are of no use

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Every sense has to be mastered

Mind control is very hard to attain. The mind can cause bondage as well as confer liberation. It is an amalgam of the passionate and ignorant attitudes, and can be easily polluted. It relishes in hiding the real nature of things and casting on them the forms and values that it desires. So you must regulate the activity of the mind. Understand the first characteristic of the mind: it runs helplessly after the senses. Whichever sense the mind follows, it is to invite disaster. When a pot of water becomes empty, we need not infer that it has leaked away through ten holes - one hole is enough to empty it! So too, even if one sense is not under control, you will be thrown into bondage. So, every sense has to be mastered.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Avoid the company of the ungodly

Spiritual aspirants will rejoice in listening to the Glory of God. They will join the company which exults in praising the Lord. This is their hallmark. Spiritual aspirants and votaries of the Lord are to be judged using these barometers and not by external appearances or apparel. If you mix with people who revel in sensory talk and activities, then you put yourself out of His Court. Spend your time in the company of the good and godly, engaged in Godly affairs. Avoid the company of the ungodly. Only when you establish yourself in good company and avoid bad company, can you be called as Bhagavatha or God's own!

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

Sanyasa (monkhood) does not mean the mere acceptance of the fourth stage of life and its rights and obligations, and retirement into forest after breaking off contacts with the world. The monks should be journeying into the far corners of the land and cleanse the society of evil through their example and precept. They should move among people, become aware of their sorrows and joys, and impart the instructions they direly need. They must transform society to be free from vice and wickedness by their teachings.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Vairagya (Non Attachment)

For understanding the Divine, mere yearning to know and the study of Vedas are not sufficient. The primary qualification you must acquire is Viveka: discrimination between the transitory and the eternal. Atma alone suffers no change; it alone is Timeless Truth. You must gain this unshakable conviction and be established in it. The second qualification is renunciation of the desire to enjoy the fruits of one's actions, here and hereafter. This is called Vairagya (Non-Attachment). Non-attachment does not mean giving up hearth and home, spouse and children and taking refuge in forests. It only involves the awareness of the world as transitory and, as a consequence of this awareness, discarding the feelings of 'I' and 'mine'.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

The infant does not know the taste of milk. By taking it daily, it develops an attachment for it which is so deep that when milk is to be given up and rice substituted, it starts to protest. But the mother does not despair. She persuades the child to take small quantities of cooked rice daily and through this process, the child starts liking rice and gives up milk. By practice, rice now becomes the child's natural food, so natural that if rice is not available even for a single day, it becomes miserable. So too, sensual pleasures are ‘natural’ at first. However, by means of practice, listening to the words of the wise, slowly, you will derive greater joy listening to the glories of God. Thereafter, you cannot exist without that holy atmosphere even for a minute. The company of the worldly chatter will no longer attract you. You will feel that there is nothing as sweet as the experience of listening to the splendour of the Lord.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

The capacity to overcome the gunas (tendencies) of prakriti (Nature) is not inherent in any one; it comes to one with the Grace of the Lord. And that Grace is to be won by japa (repetition of God’s Name) and dhyana (meditation). The truth has to be experienced, in order that it might not slip away from consciousness; and the discipline needed for this is also japa and dhyana. This must first be clearly understood: it is impossible for everyone to control the tendencies of prakriti; the power is possessed only by those who have prakriti in their grip and whose commands prakriti does obey. Prakriti is the basis of everything in the Universe. It is the basis of Creation and Existence. All this is prakriti: men or women, beasts or birds, trees or plants; in fact, all that can be seen is inseparable from prakriti.

Thought for the Day

Ajnana (Ignorance) and Dukha (Sorrow) cannot be destroyed by rituals and rites. This is the lesson the scriptures teach us. However, what is happening now is that people have forgotten their real nature. They believe that they are the body and the senses, and crave for objective pleasures. They delude themselves that they can secure joy by catering to the body and senses. Such attempts cannot earn bliss. Instead, they earn disillusionment, defeat and disaster; they reap sorrow and joy in quick succession. The ajnana can only be destroyed with the knowledge of the Divine Self. When illusion disappears, the sorrow produced by one's involvement in the ups and downs of the world is destroyed and one can realize that humanity is the Embodiment of Bliss.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Thought for the Day

Generally speaking, one gets easily drawn to sense objects, as one becomes a victim of instincts. Instincts readily seek sense objects. Instincts come along with the body and do not require any training, just as an infant seeks milk from the mother's breast and the new born calf nestles at the udder. But for the infant to walk and talk, training is necessary. They are not automatic; these skills are acquired by example and imitation of others. So also, training is essential for the proper pursuit of sense pleasure, for it is the wild, untrained search for such pleasure that promotes anger, hatred, envy, malice and conceit. To train them along salutary lines and to hold them under control, certain good disciplines such as japa (repetition of God’s Name), dhyana (meditation) and upavasa (fasting) are esse ntial.

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba